Mark Twain once said, "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." The same can be said of SOPA, the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, The reports of SOPA's death have been greatly exaggerated.
SOPA and PIPA sponsors are backing down on various aspects of their proposed legislation, they are not walking away from it.
Look carefully at the remarks of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, according to published reports he promised the House will not vote on the bill unless there is a consensus. That puts a vote on the bill on hold. That does not in any way kill the bill.
SOPA sponsor, Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith made statements over the weekend about backing down from of the technical issues of SOPA such as DNS blocking, but he has vowed to push ahead with the bill.
The Senate version of the bill PIPA, the Protect IP Act is still alive and well. Like Smith did on the House side, the Senate sponsor of the PIPA, Senator Patrick Leahy, has backed down on some of the technical issues such as DNS blocking, but a vote on the Senate version is still scheduled for next week.
SOPA and PIPA protests set for Wednesday
Social media news site Reddit has been leading the charge against SOPA and PIPA. Reddit first promoted a boycott against Go Daddy, and now they are calling for an internet blackout on Wednesday to protest proposed internet piracy legislation. Reddit will black out their site for 12 hours on Wednesday.
Online encyclopdia Wikipedia plans to go dark on Wednesday as well in opposition to protest against proposed legislation. According to a press statement the English-language Wikipedia plan a 24 hour worldwide black out,
SOPA and PIPA live on
Check out the articles, PIPA, SOPA, and the battle for the internet: Understanding the politics, and Why would congress support SOPA and ignore Vinton Cerf? The entertainment industry didn’t spend millions lobbying Congress for these two bills just to give up now.
Like a villain in a slasher movie, SOPA and PIPA are far from dead, and will keep coming back to life. They will be revived and revisited. There are still several months left in the current session of congress, with plenty of time for some revisions and compromise along the way.
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If you missed any of the recent news on the issues of controlling online piracy, please check out the links below or click on this link to a comprehensive list of internet legislation articles.
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